1.0 Introduction
Cannabis, commonly referred to as marijuana is the most commonly abused drug among Americans aged anywhere from 12years. In addition, it is significant to mention that marijuana is the only major illicit substance in the United States that has prospects of being legalized. As matter of fact some states in the country have already made this bold move and legalized recreational marijuana within their state jurisdictions. In fact Colorado electorates just voted pro recreational marijuana in the just concluded November elections. However, as far as medicinal marijuana is concerned, most states in the US have already put in place legislations to regulate its use. The basic idea is that marijuana is categorised as medicinal if it is prescribed by a qualified physician for medical purposes.
On the other hand, the legalization of recreational marijuana has been a subject of raging public debate for many ears and in the recent past, the American electorate has subjected this issue to a vote. Legalization of recreational marijuana provides many challenges as well as opportunities. It is to a large extent a trade off between foreseeable benefits and risks associated with the legalization. As a result, stringent regulatory frameworks need to be put in place to ensure that the consequences of the legalization of marijuana can be mitigated effortlessly. This however presents a major challenge given that most public policies in the US are enacted at an adversarial perspective since they are a result of stake-holder driven process rather than public driven processes.
Some of the goals of legalization of recreational marijuana include the following. The most logical is to raise revenue; it is estimated that the illicit trade of marijuana in the United States is a billion dollar industry worth between $10billion and $15billion. Secondly, the legalization can also be interpreted as a cost cutting measure especially as far as law enforcement and the penal code is concerned; legalization would consequently reduce the arrests, incarceration and stigma associated with the sale and use of marijuana. Finally, the legalization would also imply more regulation and therefore the government can put an age limit to who can smoke marijuana as it has done for alcohol; this will potentially reduce cases of minors abusing the drug especially the medicinal form of it.
2.0 Cost-Benefit Analysis of Legalizing Marijuana in the US
2.1 Increase in Consumption
Legalizing marijuana will definitely increase consumption in the United States. This will consequently increase the number of dependent users of marijuana, a figure that has been relatively stable for the past five years or so. Normally the figure fluctuates between 4million and 5million dependent users of marijuana. The increase in consumption of marijuana in the US will mainly be a function of one factor; cost reduction. Studies have projected that legalization of this illicit substance has the potential reducing down to 25% of the current market price. This means that more and more Americans will now have access to the drug. Conservative estimates project that legalization of marijuana in America would increase consumption by 60% at the very least. The social costs of increase in consumption and dependency on marijuana are unknown.
2.2 Costs of Marijuana Prohibition Implementation
Presently it is estimated that marijuana’s social costs are extremely low despite the fact that it represents only 8% of drug related incarceration, users spend only a sixth of their disposable income on the drug and finally only accounts for 16% of admissions within the hospitals. In addition, marijuana is even less implicated in other social malpractices such as driving while drunk, HIV/AIDS transmissions and overdose among other things. Statistics documenting crime wave in the country by substance abuse are hard to come by however it is very rare for one to hear of turf wars between rival gangs over dealership of marijuana. This is because distribution of marijuana unlike of other illicit substances in the US is embedded into social networks rather being a full-fledged business activity that involves making of profits. Finally, marijuana is also currently relatively cheap compared to other drugs and therefore heavy dependent users would less likely resort to crime to feed their habit. In fact as earlier mentioned, legalization of marijuana would reduce the cost by to 75% of its market cost and thereby making the drug readily available. Basically, as it stands presently the social impacts of marijuana legalization are insignificant and the trend is more likely to remain the same or better still further diminish.
Marijuana legalization will definitely ease costs in the drug enforcement and incarceration systems. This is for the following reasons. Marijuana prohibition is the most unique among US prohibition laws. This is because US enforcement agencies tend to overreact while enforcing this piece of legislation. In fact no other law in the US is implemented with so much unwarranted for harshness as the prohibition of marijuana in the country. To this effect, police make at the very least 700,000marijuana-related arrests per year and the number is progressively edging toward the one million mark. In fact in the past five years, the police have made an estimated 7million arrests related to marijuana use and abuse. This figure represents more than the combined arrests that have been made by the police for use and sell of other illicit substances such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy, and all other illicit drugs combined. It is further estimated that about 87% of the marijuana related arrests in the US or about 600,000 arrests are for small possession of the drug. Despite this fact, million of Americans have been convicted of no other crime except possession of marijuana. This is disturbing given that enforcement of marijuana laws in the country costs the taxpayers an estimated $10billion to $15billion per year and this is in direct costs only.
In addition to this, punishment for possession, use or sell of marijuana vary greatly across different states in the country; this range from modest fines and a few days behind bars to spending several years in jail. Despite the fact that prosecutors in the country normally assert than no American is supposed to be incarcerated for minor possession of marijuana, hundreds of thousand so people within the society either on probation or parole find their way in jail as a result of either testing positive for marijuana use in their urine samples or being caught in a possession of a joint or two of pot. Some states on the other hand have marijuana enforcement laws that border craziness; for instance Alabama locks people convicted of marijuana possession for up a period ranging between 15years and life imprisonment. This is despite the cost of the whole procedure to both the enforcement agencies and the penal system. In addition to the costs of marijuana enforcement in the US are also indirect in nature. For instance even though one is locked behind bars, the thought of being convicted as a result of possession of marijuana is in itself depressing and therefore reduces productivity.
Thousands of parents in the US have lost the custody of their children because they were caught either using or in possession of marijuana. Children from such parents are put foster care further subject to social disillusionment and exerting on warranted pressure on the country’s social welfare system. In addition to this, immigrants within the United States can be deported back to their counties of origin for use of marijuana regardless of whether these aliens have children who are Americans by birth and that they’ve been meaningfully employed for many years. It is significant to mention that the cost of deportation is squarely on the United States government. Most of the states in the country revoke the driving license of an individual convicted of marijuana possession despite the fact that at the time of arrest they weren’t driving a vehicle. The federal education’s act also prohibits young Americans convicted of possession of any illicit substance from being awarded student loans despite the fact that other criminal offenders are still eligible for a student loan.
The aforementioned aspects of marijuana enforcement in the American system represent an extreme overreaction from the government. It is warranted to some extent given that use of marijuana has health implications and so are other controlled substances that present many more problems to the American society that are enforced less than marijuana. In addition to the costs mentioned, the government has also spent billions of taxpayers’ dollars in advertisements and programs that basically assert that marijuana is one of the most dangerous drugs in the American society. Specifically, this advertisements and programs allude that marijuana is a gateway drug and has become more addictive and potent than it used be and is one the root causes of physical as well social health disorders in addition to playing a key part in international terrorism occurrence. Despite this, the government is yet to dispute the finding by the Drug Enforcement Administration under the leadership of the controversial judge Francis Young who asserted that “marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man” in 1988.
Of course some of the messages of the government’s campaign are spot on while others are just way exaggerated. For instance studies have determined that indeed marijuana is a gateway drug, most Americans experiment with it before graduating to an illicit substance that’s more potent. However, empirical data still point to millions of Americans who have ever used marijuana before and never graduated to use of more potent drugs. In fact most of these Americans cannot even be classified as regular marijuana users. Statistics indicate that about 100million Americans aged from 12years and above have ever used marijuana in their life time but only between 10% and 15% of these people can be categorized as regular users of the drug. In addition to this, the strategy or reducing dependency on other controlled substances by reducing dependency on marijuana is completely misplaced and is definitely bound to fail. Testimony to that is the fact that most of Americans accept marijuana and have trouble accepting its toxicity despite the numerous campaigns by the government.
The other assertion that most people undergoing drug related rehab in America are marijuana user is also on point. This is in fact understandable given that marijuana is the most used illicit substance not only in America but also the rest of the world. So it comes naturally for tens of millions of marijuana users to go to rehab compared to the millions of other illicit substance users. However, the government conveniently forgot to mention that only a fraction of the marijuana use who go to rehab are actually addicted to the drug as compared to users of other illicit substances whereby all who attend rehab are addicted. In fact less than one out of every five people who seek marijuana treatment is actually addicted to the drug. In addition to this, more than half of Americans seeking marijuana treatment are doing so involuntarily. As a matter fact, this people were referred to the marijuana rehab by the American justice system. Most of them seek marijuana treatment because they got caught with a joint or failed to pass that urine test at school or at work and not even because they were caught actually using or selling the drug. In addition to this, the marijuana enforcement framework is set up in such a way that seeking treatment is the only sure way a caught user can avoid expulsion, termination of employment or worst still incarceration
2.3 Economic Impacts of Legalization of Marijuana
Finally, the assertion that the government would earn revenue is misplaced on many fronts. As earlier mentioned, the black market marijuana industry is valued between $10billion and $15billion. Notably the government spends the same amount of money in direct costs incurred in the enforcement marijuana legislations. Basically this implies that the only revenue the government would earn will be in form of saving money that would have actually been used in the enforcement. However as far as taxation and other avenues of revenue from marijuana are concerned, it would be an exaggeration to assert that legalization of marijuana will present the government with more revenue generating avenues. This is the case for the following reasons. First and foremost, tobacco and alcohol are amongst the few legal controlled substances. It must be mentioned that for every $1 the government earns from the tobacco and alcohol, it spend a further $10 in costs incurred as a result of the consumption of each of the two substances. It is unlikely that the situation will change as far as legalization of marijuana is concerned.
However, it must be mentioned that costs by the government currently are as a result of the marijuana legislative framework and not a direct cost of actual use of the drug. This is therefore implies that the social costs of legalization of marijuana will not only be lower than those of either tobacco or alcohol but also will lower than the ones incurred presently. Secondly, projections have determined that legalization of marijuana would actually reduce the price of the drug drastically. This is of course as a result of the reduction of the risks involved in the sale of the drug. This technically implies that the profitability of the marijuana business would at the very least be halved and the values of the industry would reduce significantly. A further imposition of taxes by the government will only serve to worsen the situation. This is because the most economically viable taxation system would consequently increase the cost of production to levels higher than the current market price. Such a scenario would imply that most retailers of marijuana would prefer the black market rather than the mainstream one as a result of the taxation and licensing fees imposed by the government.
Basically, the government needs to understand that unlike other illicit drugs marijuana’s distribution chain is embedded in social networks and thus implies that the sale is purely for recreational purposes rather than for profits. In addition to this, already marijuana is way cheaper than other legal and illicit substances available in the American market and this is the reason why it is the most popular drug in the world. Finally, legalization of marijuana would also imply that the government allows users to produce their own products rather than rely on businesses whose main purpose is to get as many people hooked onto the drug as it is the case with tobacco. Such a move would guarantee that the government does not earn even a single dime from the legalization of marijuana. This is the case because unlike other substances whether legal or illicit, marijuana does not need any form of processing and therefore can be consumed in its primary form. Allowing home cultivation will therefore imply that marijuana users can be the primary producers of their commodity which cuts off other stakeholders in the industry the government included. Generally it would problematic for the government to change marijuana consumption from being a black market enterprise to a legitimate industry while maintaining the same costs. This would definitely either push consumers back into the black market or better still toward home cultivation; these two scenarios would make regulation of commercial production of marijuana a nightmare for the involved agencies.
However, home cultivation of marijuana would prove advantageous in many ways for the fight against drug dependency in the country. First and foremost, users of marijuana would determine the level of potency of the drug and not unscrupulous business men. Secondly, it would also minimize abuse of prescription marijuana in the US thereby also reducing dependency on the drug. Finally and most importantly, such a move will give marijuana users control on how the drug is consumed in addition to eradicating trade of the illicit substance within the black market. For instance, parents would be forced to regulate the age that their children can use marijuana and the amounts that they can consume. This implies that allowing home cultivation of marijuana would enable the government to achieve most of its goals at the very minimum costs.
3.0 Conclusions
Works Cited
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